


What We Left Behind

by Bittereloquence



Series: Between the Stars [4]
Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Legends - All Media Types, Star Wars Legends: Republic Commando (Video Games), Star Wars Legends: Republic Commando Series - Karen Traviss
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Alternate Universe - Post-Canon, Delta Squad's overdue reunion, Gen, Mentions of Past Slavery, Rebellion Era (Star Wars), Sev's generally sunny attitude should be its own trigger warning, Walon Vau's zero percent approval rating
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-10
Updated: 2020-12-10
Packaged: 2021-03-09 22:48:16
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 7,629
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27984090
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Bittereloquence/pseuds/Bittereloquence
Summary: “This better be life or death, I was in a karking meeting with the general.” The years being a rebel hadn’t done a lot to soften the more jagged and sharp edges of Sev’s personality but his second in command was made of sterner stuff.“I know, boss, but we need you down at the shuttle bay now. A bunch of guys dressed up in Mandalorian armor showed up here demanding to see you.” His second in command said, sounding remarkably calm all things considered. Few things managed to fluster Arani Vane, a trait Sev greatly appreciated in his second.“Fierfek,on my way.”
Relationships: Delta Squad & RC-1207 | Delta-07 | Sev
Series: Between the Stars [4]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1945153
Comments: 11
Kudos: 40





	What We Left Behind

**Author's Note:**

> This entire fic spawned because of this [ random screenshot](https://64.media.tumblr.com/ac8b336d5973c9f9ddbcc8638f3b85a4/895dfc8e6d7b9b54-97/s500x750/c629a19995eb7ccc122c9fc7a0c67347361f3cf8.jpg) I got linked to on tumblr saying in the canceled sequel to the RepComm game, Sev was going to survive and play a role in the Rebellion. I also desperately needed some Delta Squad being reunited so this monster of a fic was born after I got struck with the idea of Delta wearing silver armor to honor their 'dead' teammate with varying accent colors and knew I was sunk after that. I desperately looked but no one had written a fic to satisfy my thirst so I decided to quench my own thirst instead. I'm technically posting this out of order in my Space project cause this is themed around Mars by Sleeping At Last but...I do what I want. Dunno if I'll write any more of this mainly cause I'm fresh out of ideas but who knows. I have a fondness for the Republic Commandos even while rolling my eyes and generally reviling Karen Traviss and her heavy-handed treatment of the canon. Trying to finish the last two books of the RepComm series legitimately almost killed me though, I will say that. LOL

_Our nights have grown so long now we beg for sound advice  
"Let the brokenness be felt 'til you reach the other side  
There is goodness in the heart of every broken man  
Who comes right up to the edge of losing everything he has"_  
\- Sleeping At Last: Mars

* * *

Sev was in the middle of going over plans with General Dodonna via holo with the rest of the officers for the Alliance commandos when his com-link suddenly started chirping at him insistently. He felt a flash of irritated embarrassment at causing an unwanted disruption and immediately shoved to his feet.

“Sorry, please excuse me.” He made his hasty apologies and hurried out of the cramped office they were using as their temporary war room. They’d only been on the planet for less than a week and things were still absolute madness. The Rebel Alliance by necessity’s sake was constantly on the move in an endless shell game with the Empire. They built or took over temporary bases long enough to replenish their supplies before they had to move on to avoid detection. 

It was a stressful, exhausting way to live but Sev had been bred and raised for just these sorts of circumstances. It was also the only life he’d known since he’d been rescued from a Trandoshan slave encampment five years before. He was twenty going on forty biologically and he felt every year it deep down in his bones. The _Kaminii_ had engineered the clones to be the peak of human physical conditioning, they tended to heal a little faster than natborns, ran hotter, and aged at twice the rate as them as well. It was the bitter trade-off every clone endured. 

And one that Sev made willingly. First, he had dedicated himself to the Republic whole-heartedly, had sacrificed, bled, and very nearly died for it. Afterward, when he’d been captured by the Trandoshan slavers in the dark and depressing days following the violent death of the Republic, Sev had done everything he could to try and escape. He'd wanted to find the remnants of Delta, had needed to let them know that he was still alive. But as the newfound Empire grew in power and the newly christened Emperor extended his vicious and bloody rule upon the universe, Sev had been forced to come to terms with the new reality he found himself in.

His fellow clones, his _vode_ were done, disappeared into the stark white ranks of the Stormtrooper corps. He'd learned that bitter lesson when he'd tried to approach a _vod_ who had accompanied the Moff who had visited the slave camp looking for unwilling ‘volunteers’ for some new project the Empire. At the time, he'd never even heard of the Spathi clones, didn’t know they existed or that that they had no idea what it was _like_ to be a true Mandalorian because they hadn’t been raised by the _Cuy'val Dar_. 

They weren’t even _dar’manda_ because they’d never been _Mando’ade_ to begin with. 

That clone hadn’t understood him when he’d called out to him in _Mando’a_. When it finally had spoken from behind the vaguely synthetic sounding vocabulator, it hadn’t been with the familiar accent he’d been expecting to hear. Instead, he’d sounded almost like one of those fancy Coruscanti civs Sev had looked down upon once upon a time. And instead of greeting him like a brother, he’d reported him as a traitor and a deserter. 

Sev had been pounced upon and beaten to within an inch of his life because the Empire was always eager to make examples of traitorous and defective clones. It didn’t matter that Sev had been a slave, that he’d been forced from the jungles of Kashyyyk against his will. To the Empire, he was defective and something that needed to be destroyed. 

They had dumped him in a cell and he’d spent an agony-filled night wondering if that was how his story was going to end. Instead of dying gloriously in battle, he’d thought he was going to be executed like a coward by his own fellow clones. 

It was sheer dumb luck that the Rebellion had attacked in the dead of the night in an attempt to both free the slaves being held there but also capture the Moff who was headed the Emperor’s newest murder project in hopes of questioning him and figuring out what the whispers they’d been hearing meant. Unfortunately, the Moff had gotten away though Sev and the rest of the slaves had been liberated. 

Still reeling with the idea his own _vode_ would turn on him, Sev had gone along with the Rebels along with the rest of the freed slaves. He’d been in no state to fight them off when it was discovered he was a clone and for a moment there, he’d thought he was going to be facing execution yet again. But it turned out not every _vode_ had remained loyal to the Empire. 

Enough of them had deserted, had made a break for it in a bid for freedom that even the Rebel Alliance had heard about them and hadn’t immediately tried to kill him as a spy or an infiltrator outright. It had taken time to earn their trust and it helped that there had been other slaves who were willing to corroborate the fact he’d been with them for almost three years by the time the Rebels had attacked the camp. 

For the first time in his life, Sev was given a choice about what he wanted to do with his life. The Rebellion had offered to do what they could to help the former slaves establish a life for themselves as best they could with their limited resources. There had also been an offer to join them, something a few of his fellow slaves had taken for lack of any other prospects. They had no family, no homes to go back to and so they'd opted to throw in with the Rebellion in hopes of striking back at the Empire that had stolen so much from them. Sev had found himself torn between committing himself to their cause or trying to find Delta, a task which at the time had felt almost impossible for one clone to do. 

Assuming they even survived the war and Order 66, he'd hadn’t a clue where they might be. In the end, he’d joined the Rebellion because he’d needed a direction in his life, not because he believed in their cause. But as he spent time with the scrappy Rebels, had seen first hand just how depraved and cruel the Empire could be, he’d found himself believing until finally, all thoughts of going off on his own to try and find Delta were shelved away with a pang of regret. 

Ironically, it had been an intelligence operative who accidentally clued him in to the fact there were apparently rumors of networks out there who specialized in helping clones defect from the Empire. There hadn’t been any concrete details outside of that for years though. Still, it gave Sev hope that maybe someday he might hear even a whisper about his former squadmates. He didn’t expect Delta to show up on their doorstep but even the chance at one day being reunited with his pod helped keep him sane over the intervening years. 

He’d made a point of visiting every clone who ended up in the Rebellion’s ranks until High Command had noticed his less than subtle mission and had tentatively given him the official go-ahead to help run the new clone acquisitions into a crash course on serving in the Alliance. Sev evaluated their skills, figured out what their stories were, and made sure they ended up being recommended to a branch that would best suit their skills. 

It eventually just became another one of his unofficial duties until like all things in the Rebelion until one day it became official. He suspected Boss would have detested the ramshackle way the Alliance ran its business. Their lack of military discipline would have driven him up the karking wall and it was enough to frustrate even Sev at times but he’d learned to work with civs and soldiers alike. 

But he’d found his place amongst the commandos or what passed for Alliance commandos because they at least were kindred spirits. They weren’t clones but for natborns, they weren’t bad and they put up with Sev’s antisocial tendencies with remarkable grace, all things considered. He even had what he would very loosely call friends though none of them could ever approach the report he shared with Scorch and the rest of his pod.

Sev had once thought himself to be a sort of lone-wolf who didn’t need anyone but as the better part of a decade had proven to him, he’d been wrong. He missed his squad more than he’d ever thought humanly possible. The ache never truly went away just like a phantom limb continued to plague some people even after they’d been outfitted with the best prosthetics on the market. 

But at this point, save for a miracle, he’d resigned himself to the knowledge he most likely wouldn’t ever see Delta again but would instead end his short life miserable and ultimately alone. 

Once Sev had stepped out into the hallway, he activated his com-unit and growled into it. “This better be life or death, I was in a karking meeting with the general.” The years being a rebel hadn’t done a lot to soften the more jagged and sharp edges of Sev’s personality but his second in command was made of sterner stuff.

“I know, boss, but we need you down at the shuttle bay now. A bunch of guys dressed up in Mandalorian armor showed up here demanding to see you.” His second in command said, sounding remarkably calm all things considered. Few things managed to fluster Arani Vane, a trait Sev greatly appreciated in his second. 

“ _Fierfek,_ on my way.” A hundred different questions spun around in his head like a blaster bolt let loose in his skull. Were they facing invasion? How the hell had they been given clearance to even _land_?! And immediately on the heels of that question, he felt his heart seize in his chest at the thought of potentially meeting other Mandalorians. 

Would they deem him to be _Dar’manda_ because he hadn’t tried to return home to some ancestral world he had no real ties to as the Empire ran roughshod over everything Mandalore stood for?

He suspected other clones had defected to Mandalore, it just made sense that they might go there where they might be able to blend in with the native population. Sev took off at a dead run in the direction of the landing field and the hanger bay. There were no alarms or klaxons blaring which was a damn good sign so chances were they weren’t facing a full-scale invasion.

But Mandalore hadn’t given a damn about the Rebellion up until this point and had made their thoughts on the subject starkly clear. Despite his right leg screaming at him in pain, Sev made it across the base in almost two minutes flat at a dead-run. He was definitely feeling every artificially accelerated year of his biologically going on post-forty years, battle-worn body these days.

Sev was used to feeling bulletproof but he’d noticed he wasn’t springing back as fast as he’d done ten years ago, his injuries seemed to linger longer and he had new aches in his joints and bones that kept cropping up courtesy of his old injuries. The nasty break to his right leg he’d gotten his first week in the slaver camps after they’d dragged him kicking and screaming half-dead but still fighting mad from the forest had never quite healed cleanly and had started to bother him whenever he pushed it too far.

Once he reached the door that would lead into the hanger bay, Sev stopped and forced himself to breathe in a few deep breaths in an attempt to catch his breath and not look like he’d raced across the base like a madman. He wiped the sweat from his brow and scrubbed a hand through his hair which had grown out long enough some of the natural curls were starting to take hold in the back. 

It was perhaps the longest he’d ever let it grow out in his life but the climate on this planet tended to fluctuate into sub-zero temperatures during the night so he appreciated the extra insulation against the cold. It wasn’t Hoth but it sure as hell wasn’t some temperature pleasure planet like Dorumaa. 

He’d thought about that damn planet constantly while he’d been breaking his back in the slave camps. Sev had disliked the whole vibe of the place to begin with and how it had catered to the idle rich that had every luxury offered to them at the drop of a hat. Meanwhile, an invisible workforce had worked hard picking up the trash and making sure their illusion of a perfect island paradise was maintained. 

Once Sev had control of his breathing once more, he straightened his shoulders and strode out of the door and into the hanger bay which was filled with a disparate mix of ships ranging from beat-up corvettes to snubfighters. Bail Organa was an absolute genius when it came to his creative sourcing of material for the Rebellion and amongst the ships that were often fifty-plus years old, there were a few shiny new B-Wing bombers and even some X-Wings. 

But Sev had little trouble spotting the dinky looking cargo ship and the three Mandalorians kitted out in _beskar'gam_. All of them wore a similar base color of gunmetal gray so similar to the one that Jango Fett had worn all those years ago, Sev had a strange fit of deja vu just looking at them. Something about their identical heights, their neutral stances just _screamed_ Jango Fett to Sev’s mind. 

They were clones.

He didn’t know how he knew it but he just knew it in his gut. They weren’t wearing the cheap plastoid armor the white-jobs had worn during the war or even the fancy Katarn armor Delta had been kitted out with. No, this was genuine _beskar'gam_ and Sev found himself trying to wrangle with the realization that all his suspicions about clones defecting from the Empire and going native on Mandalore being true. 

For one breathless moment, a vise closed around his heart as he felt that familiar pang for his squad seized him yet again. It didn’t matter it had been almost a decade since he’d seen his brothers, that pain didn’t go away, it was always there in the background. 

And seeing those unknown clones standing there talking with his second and an unknown female dressed in a grease-stained flightsuit only brought that pang to the foreground. A dispassionate part of Sev’s brain, the part that always managed to sound like Walon Vau analyzed what he was seeing seamlessly. All four clones were dressed in gray armor but the accents on them were all different colors.

He knew from Vau that the colors Mandalorians often chose to sport held a deeper meaning than _aruetiise_ realized. The gray base color could have meant they were honoring loved ones who’d marched off to join the _Manda_. The yellowish-orange accents could have meant vengeance or a general lust and zeal for life on the one on the right. The green accents of another clone could have signified duty while the red on the last often meant one was honoring a parent. Walon Vau had been known for his stark black, ominous armor while Kal Skirata had worn the sandy-colored gold of vengeance. 

Sev doubted his fellow Rebels understood the significance of the armor or the fact none of them wore any visible bounties. He knew some _beroya_ did, so they most likely weren’t trying to sell their services to the Rebellion or collect payment for any bounty they might have outstanding on some of the more unsavory members of the Empire. 

The Rebellion’s coffers weren’t deep enough to employ the likes of true Mandalorian _beroya_. Sev had heard rumors that Jango’s son had gone into the bounty hunting business along with a few other wayward clones. Last he’d heard, the little sleemo was bellied up tight with the Empire and the likes of Palpatine’s executioner, Darth Vader. 

He’d never particularly cared one way or another about Boba Fett save for a low-key resentment towards the boy who’d garnered so much of Jango Fett’s attention and affection. Boba had been the chosen one while Sev and the rest of his commando brothers along with the millions of white-jobs had been nothing more than human cattle bred and trained to be cannon fodder for the GAR. 

The female pilot seemed to be the first one who noticed him approaching and she reached out to tap the clone with the yellow-orange accents on his shoulder which drew the helmeted man’s attention. Sev hadn’t expected the gutted sound of pain that escaped the man to greet him as he approached wearing his best sabacc face. The man actually flinched and made an abortive step towards Sev only to find his way blocked by a firm grasp from the clone who wore red accents on his armor.

Sev’s own innate paranoia kicked into overdrive and his hand fell to the butt of his sidearm when that abortive movement registered as potentially threatening. 

“No! Let me go!” The clone being restrained cried out and that familiar accent firmly put to bed any lingering doubts he might have had about these Mandalorians being clones. What Sev hadn’t expected was the wealth of emotion and pain choking up the clone’s voice. “ _Sev!_ ” 

The sound of his own name being shouted at him in that tortured tone of voice brought with it the unpleasant memory of that disastrous mission to Kashyyyk. Scorch had practically screamed his name over the comms before he’d lost communications with the rest of Delta. His last memory of his team was hearing Scorch furiously argue with Boss and the rest of their team about wanting to extract him. 

Then he’d lost communications and had known he was well and truly kriffed and on his own. Sev hadn’t expected to make it out of that battle, hadn’t expected to survive the jungle afterward, and when the Trandoshans had found him emaciated and half-dead, he’d thought that was finally going to be the end of him. 

He’d thought he was going to die more times than he could count over the past decade but the one thing Sev hadn’t truly allowed himself to believe he might one day be reunited with his team.

“Scorch?” He had the sneaking suspicion he’d completely lost all control of his expression because he didn’t miss the way his second in command’s eyes widened in visible surprise. What she saw in his face, Sev would never know because Scorch had finally managed to rip himself away from his companions and he suddenly found himself being slammed into by a body covered head to toe in beskar. 

For one second, he didn’t know if he was being attacked or hugged mainly because they didn’t _do_ hugs and so his frame of reference for such things was practically zero. Scorch’s arms closed around him tightly though and he found himself being uncomfortably pressed into the man’s chestplate. Sev just stood there stiff as a board, utterly unsure of what he was supposed to do. 

The urge to squirm away, to put some much-needed distance between himself and his former teammate was almost overpowering. “You absolute _chakaar_ ,” Scorch finally managed to bite out as he reluctantly loosened his death grip on Sev. “You’re alive, we’ve been searching the entire karking galaxy for you for _years_.” 

“I didn’t know that, I thought you were still stuck within the Empire’s clutches,” Sev growled back, feeling the almost irresistible urge to defend himself.

“We got out years ago. Our former CO thought it would be a great idea to send us and the remnants of Omega squadron to Mandalore to hunt down Jedi.” The clone wearing the red-accented armor who could _only_ be Boss put in as he and the clone Sev could only guess was Fixer approached on either side. 

“The lot of us decided to go native once we go there and realized Skirata and Vau had set up a home for us clones there,” Boss said softly and cautiously laid a hand on Sev’s shoulder. “I’m glad to see you alive, _ner vod_. You had us scared there for a while.” 

“Didn’t expect to find you rubbing elbows with the Rebels though.” Fixer put in dryly. “That’s pretty much the last place we thought we’d find you.” 

“We’re lucky Ny has friends in all sorts of places and she happened to hear about some clone making a name for himself leading the Rebellion’s commandos. We weren’t sure if we were seeking out a Gev or a Sev.” Boss put in softly. 

The realization they were here, that they’d been actively looking for him for years suddenly struck Sev out of nowhere and he found himself afflicted by all manner of conflicting emotions. 

“Sev? How about we show your friends to somewhere more quiet where you can all catch up in peace?” Bless his second and her near unflappable nature, he shot the woman a tense look of silent thanks and nodded. 

“Good idea, follow me.” Sev brusquely ordered and pretended he didn't see the curious tilt of Boss’s helmet when he said that. It felt decidedly _weird_ issuing any kind of order to his old sergeant and Boss seemed to find it just as strange but he made a subtle gesture to the rest of Delta that most people would have missed and they fell into line readily enough. 

The commandos had their own staging and living quarters based passingly like those of Arca Barracks on Coruscant. His men tended to gather there on their off-hours when they weren’t otherwise on duty just hanging out, playing sabbac or training but at this time of the day it was relatively empty with only a few commandos underfoot.

They openly gawked at Sev and the three clones kitted out in Mandalorian armor. It actually gave them a few additional centimeters of height compared to Sev who was just wearing basic fatigues and a pair of well-worn boots. To the casual observer, they might not even realize the other three were clones, and wasn’t that a bit of a mind-trip? Sev being a renegade clone was a bit of an open secret among the Rebellion. His closest friends and colleagues knew, as did a smattering of other people who’d come across other Fett clones in one situation or another. These days though, you didn’t see many of them thanks to the fact the Empire had treated them as just as disposable cannon fodder as the GAR had back in the Clone Wars and there were plenty of Rebels who had no idea of the gruff commando’s former life as a Republic Commando.

Sev hadn’t exactly made it his policy to advertise that fact either considering when people tended to talk about the clones, it was often in a negative, resentful light. A sentiment he could almost understand considering what he knew about those bloody, violent first years of the Empire where Palpatine dug his claws into the universe and took hold of it with ruthless cruelty. 

Any experiences your everyday, garden variety Rebel had with the Stormtroopers was generally fraught with pain and terror. Not that there were many of the original clone troopers left filling the Stormtrooper ranks these days in Sev’s experience. And it showed because the training and general skill level of the Stormtroopers had taken a decided plunge the longer the cold war went on. 

Unfortunately, the Empire had little trouble filling those gaps in their ranks with hoards of eager young men and women ready to serve. While they couldn’t hold a candle to the former clone troopers, they still outnumbered the Rebellion, were better armed, and had the resources of the Empire to back them up. 

Sev nodded his head towards the door that led to his cramped office at the back of the ready area to indicate where they were going. The trio of commandos who’d been seated at one of the tables playing cards openly gawked at their commander and the armor-clad Mandalorians. 

“What are you three looking at?” Vane snapped at them. “If you have time to stand there catching flies in your open mouth, you have more than enough time to catch up on your range time, Kinnar. Don’t think I’m not aware you haven’t set foot on the practice range for three weeks.”

“Aw, come on, sarge, it’s just training bots. Not like--” Whatever the man saw in Vane’s face effectively stopping right in his tracks and the trio of commandos stood up and slunk off rather than argue. Unfortunately for them, Vane was hot on their heels, thus giving Sev complete privacy, something he suspected was her entire plan all along. 

He thought he might have heard a huff of amusement from Scorch but he could have been wrong. 

His office was cramped under the best of circumstances, mainly because Sev barely spent any time in it. But it had soundproofing and more importantly, a door that could shut out the outside world so they all shuffled in. Boss and Fixer claimed the two chairs that sat opposite Sev’s desk as he sat down while Scorch sort of awkwardly hovered close to Sev, standing there against the wall in between him and the door. 

“So...Mandalore?” Sev broached the topic as delicately as he could. “That’s where you three ended up? With Skirata and his mongrels, I take it?” 

“In a roundabout fashion, yeah. Vau ended up falling in with Skirata who created a sort of...safe haven for renegade clones.” Boss said, his tone even and neutral. 

“Kal Skirata’s home for renegade clones, huh? Guess it has a ring to it.” That was said with a faint sneer.

“It beats the alternative.” Fixer pointed out sharply. 

“What about you, Sev? How the hell did you end up _here_ of all places?” Scorch asked, the confused pain in his voice impossible to miss. “You never tried to come home?”

“ _Home?_ The Empire isn’t home, at least not to me. I spent almost three years in an Empire run slave camp after those damn lizards dragged my carcass from the jungle. I would have _died_ there if the Rebellion hadn’t saved my _shebs_.” Sev’s voice was as cold and flat as an icefield on Hoth. 

His words had a visible effect on his former team who all went stiff and tense. “We tried to find you, Sev. Kriff, Vau penetrated the Imperial blockage on Kashyyyk after Order 66 in hopes of finding any trace of you but despite searching for weeks, he never found any sign you were alive. We never would have left you to rot in a kriffing slave camp if we’d known.” 

Scorch sounded absolutely emotionally gutted once more and he squeezed his hands into fists at his sides. “We didn’t know.”

“I’m not blaming you, Scorch. None of you could have known, just like I didn’t know you weren’t still under Imperial control.” Sev said softly and rubbed at his neck in an unconsciously self-soothing gesture. “I am glad to see you and I’m glad you’re not slaves to the Empire like so many of the _vode_ have become.”

“The important thing is we’re reunited now. Vau is going to be so pleased to see you again. We finally got a place of our own set-up, it’s not a lot but it’s _ours_. And we’re not constantly tripping over the Omegas or Nulls and their families, which lemme tell you is a blessing because yeesh...”

“Scorch…” Boss put in softly and that stopped the other Delta mid-sentence. 

“What?” 

“I swear, you have one singular brain cell and it is the loneliest brain cell in the entire universe,” Boss said with a heavy sigh. “You’re not coming are you.” This was addressed to Sev who looked visibly pained at that pointed question.

“What? _No!_ Sev, you have to come.”

“I have responsibilities here, Scorch. I can’t just galavant off to Mandalore. We’re prepping for a mission right now.” 

“That’s _osik_. We’ve searched for you for kriffing decade, I’m not going to lose you to some _shabla_ war perpetuated by _aruetiise_!” 

That was apparently the wrong thing to say because Sev’s expression visibly hardened. 

“It’s my war too. I owe my life to these people and more than that, the Empire is a rot that needs to be rooted out of the galaxy before it destroys everything with its corruption.” 

“It’s just another pointless war, Sev! Haven’t you given enough of your life to stupid, pointless wars? We already lost you once, I’m not going to lose you again!” Scorch countered hotly and he was surprised by the burn of unshed tears stinging in his eyes. 

“We were made for war, _ner vod_. At least this war is one I believe in and think I can actually do some real good for once.” 

“ _Udesii!_ Both of you, just calm down.” Boss finally cut in and climbed to his feet so he could approach the visibly upset Scorch. “We’re not going to lose him again, _vod_. He’s right here. And if he thinks he has to fight this war, we’ll find a way of working around it.” He clapped a hand on Scorch’s shoulder and the other clone jerked at the touch. 

“Sev, you don’t know what it did to us to lose you once. You have to promise me you won’t take any unnecessary risks because I don’t know what it would do to us to lose you again.” 

The muscles in Sev’s jaw bunched up and went taut as he bit down on his back molars and when he looked at Scorch, something inscrutable passed through his eyes. “I can’t just abandon my people and go off and play at playing house on Mandalore like the whole kriffing universe isn’t going down in flames, Boss.”

“I understand that. And I get the want to serve. We _all_ do. It’s how they bred us. But....Kal Skirata and his Nulls worked out how to reverse our accelerated aging. You have an opportunity to get to live a full life if you choose it, Sev.”

“W-What?” That startled the other clone and he found himself gaping at Boss openly. 

“That’s what Skirata was working on, why he was building up such a nest egg. He was hiring the best minds in the galaxy in an attempt to find a way to shut off those parts of our genetic code and it worked.”

Sev had spent the majority of his life wrangling with a bitter resentment towards the likes of the Nulls and the Omega weaklings because they had Kal Skirata as a training sergeant. No, they’d had a father while Delta had been stuck with a bitter old _chakaar_ like Walon Vau. Not that he regretted it, he made them strong, not weak and pathetic like Omega. 

But at that moment, that envy was born anew in his heart like bitter fruit. 

Of course, Kal Skirata would somehow find a way of thumbing his nose at the longnecks and the ghosts of their former GAR masters by finding a way to give his adopted sons the life he always thought they deserved. He somehow did the impossible and it left a bitter taste in Sev’s mouth like ashes because deep down, he knew Vau wouldn’t have gone to those lengths for Delta. 

“Not much of a point living a long life if the Empire is allowed to enslave the entire universe.” He spat the words with venom dripping from every syllable. Sev regretted saying that almost as soon as the words flew out of his mouth but like always, he lashed out when he felt backed into a corner. 

It was impossible to read his brother’s expressions courtesy of the helmets they wore but he’d grown up surrounded by clones hidden beneath layers of plastoid and masks that hid their faces and he could read the disapproval in Boss’s body language, the hurt in Scorch’s tense shoulders and Fixer’s cool judgment so like Vau’s that it licked across his senses like acid. 

“Just….think about it, Sev. Even if you don’t come to stay, come with us and visit. You don’t have to go through this life alone anymore, _ner vod_.” Boss entreated quietly and he didn’t miss the effect that quiet plea had on his brother because he could see the cracks in his expression, the pain that huddled underneath the surface. “If you need to take care of things here first, that’s fine too. We can wait or come back. But we aren’t going to leave you behind again.” There was the faintest hint of a tremor in Boss’s voice when he said those words.

The fact he’d been the one to make the call all those years ago to leave Sev behind had haunted him for years. Delta wasn’t emotionally touchy-feely like the likes of Omega or even the damn Nulls. They thought themselves to be hard men who’d been carefully crafted to be the most perfect soldiers Walon Vau could have asked for. 

And for the most part, he’d gotten his wish.

Unfortunately, he hadn’t been able to prepare Delta for what would happen when one of them wouldn’t come home and the emotional trauma of being trapped behind enemy lines for the better part of half a year would wreak on them all mentally and emotionally. 

None of them could have predicted Order 66 and what it had done to all of them. 

Eventually, Delta and the rest of Omega plus their brand new team members had escaped the Empire, Walon Vau had been reunited with his men and had done his best to make amends for the mistakes of the past. 

He and Delta would never have the easy-going familial relationship Kal Skirata enjoyed with his sons because they weren’t wired like that. But he and the remnants of Delta had managed to forge a relationship that transcended just that of a training sergeant and his men. 

But Sev would never believe that, could never even conceive the ridiculousness of that idea, and that broke Boss’s heart. Knowing their long lost pod-mate could die without ever stepping foot on their ancestral home as a free-man was heartbreaking and too much to bear. 

“I don’t know how long this is going to take, Boss.” 

“We have all the time in the world, _vod_.” And there was a bittersweet irony to that statement because unlike Sev, they had twice as much time left as him by their count.

“We’re not leaving you behind again, Sev. Don’t ask that of us.” Scorch finally bit out and Boss smacked him upside the head lightly.

“Yeah, you don’t want to make this one cry do you?”

“Kark you.” Scorch snarled at him but the waver in his voice gave him away.

“If you two are trying to convince him to run away screaming then you’re doing a great job of it.” Fixer drawled from where he was still seated in front of Sev’s desk. “Face it, _vod_. You’re stuck with us now. We know where you live and those two are going to stick with you like a tick on a womp rat’s backside so you might as well make your peace with it. Otherwise you really might make Scorch cry and none of us want to see that ugly sight.” 

“I’m not going to cry! Little _Gods_ , I hate all of you.” 

That garnered a quiet huff that might have almost been a laugh from Sev because stars take it, he had missed his brothers. The realization that they were there, right in front of him again was surreal and he almost feared this was some dream and that he was going to wake up alone in his bunk devastated at the cruelty of his subconscious. 

“No, none of us want to see that horrific sight. It might take a while and I don’t think High Command is going to be comfortable having some renegade Mandalorians underfoot.”

“We might....not have come empty-handed and Ny might be meeting with some of those higher-ups with a proposition. We’re always on the lookout for clones who have managed to escape the Empire. Skirata isn’t going to throw in with the Rebellion but he is willing to work out a deal with them when it comes to offering safe passage to any deserters who want to escape the Empire and resettle back home.” Boss said, his voice tellingly neutral. 

“So that’s how you got within the parameter.” 

“That’s her mission, we’re here for you, Sev.” Scorch put in quickly. “Vau would have been here too if he wasn’t halfway across the galaxy chasing down another rumor about you possibly hooking up with a bunch of farmers. Turned out to be one of those damned ARCs.”

“The fact anyone would mix me up with one of those swish-skirt-wearing _chakaare_ is the most insulting thing that’s ever been said to me.” He said with a sneer at the comparison. 

“He’s been running himself ragged the past few years trying to catch any word of you, _vod_. We all have.”

“Sure, pull the other one while you’re at it.” 

“I’m serious!”

“I would maybe buy that you three might care but Walon Vau? Come off it, the man would sooner tell me all the ways I’ve kriffed things up in the past decade than look at me.” He still had Vau’s cold, dispassionate voice haunting his nightmares proclaiming he wasn’t good enough, that he was nothing he did was ever good enough.

“He cares more than you realize.” 

“Just stop it.” Sev found himself becoming almost irrationally angry the more Scorch talked about Vau. 

“Fine, you’ll just have to see for yourself. I know he’s always been hard on us but...he’s been better these past few years.” 

The urge to snap at Scorch was almost overpowering. Sev wanted to point out that he probably only felt like that because they’d all been so indoctrinated by the man’s cruelty that even the barest scrap of approval felt like the highest, most loving praise in the universe because such things were rarer than a Krayt dragon’s pearl. 

But Sev had seen all manner of different kinds of leadership styles both from the sidelines watching with barely repressed envy over the way Skirata treated his mongrels but also at the hands of genuinely good and decent commanding officers amongst the Rebels. It had taken him years to not flinch away from every perceived mistake. 

A part of him wished Atin would have actually shanked Vau all those years ago but the man he’d become in the past decade could recognize the reason he’d been so angry with Atin wasn’t because he was weak but because he’d escaped.

“There isn’t a damn thing I want from him save that he stays the hell away from me.” 

The silence in the wake of that statement was resounding as the other three former Deltas seemed to even cease to breathe for a moment, so wholesale was their shock. 

“Sev…”

“No. I have nothing to say to that man. I spent half my life trying to measure up to his impossible expectations and hating myself for failing to meet them. I’ve learned there’s more to life than trying to earn Walon-kriffing-Vau’s approval and I have zero interest in going back to that.”

“He really has changed though.” Scorch’s tone was laced with confused hurt. 

“A day late and a credit short,” Sev stated coldly. “I’m glad he is treating people better but I can’t forget everything he’s done and I’ve seen enough different leadership styles now to realize how karked up the way he used to treat us was like. Yes, he made us into the best but at what cost?”

“You’ve changed.” Boss put in softly. 

“I’ve had a lot of time to think about everything.” He’d also spent three years being abused and tortured in the most casually cruel ways possible. For the most part they hadn’t hurt their slaves out of some sadistic need to make them suffer. Instead, it had been cruelly dehumanizing and done with the same kind of clinical dispassion Vau had broken them down when they’d been cadets. “I don’t hate him training us to be strong and stars know I probably wouldn’t be here today if it wasn’t for his training. But I’ve had my fill of putting up with abuse from miserable _shabuire_.” 

“That’s your choice to make, _ner vod_ , and we’re not going to try and convince you otherwise. I don’t want you to let yourself become alienated from us on account of him though.”

“Don’t let it be a deciding factor in your decision to come back to Mandalore. Just promise me that, please?” Scorch put in a little hurriedly, it was impossible to read his expression because the helmet but it was clear the other clone wasn’t happy about Sev’s decision. 

“Fine but don’t expect me to play nice with Skirata and his mongrels either. Not having to listen to Fi’s annoying attempts at jokes has been one of the highlights of my entire decade.” That wasn’t completely true, he wouldn’t say he’d _missed_ the Omega but his thoughts had very rarely wandered towards the injured clone and he wondered how his recovery from the traumatic brain injury he’d sustained was progressing. 

Last he’d heard, Jusik had managed some miracle with his _Jetii_ magic and had supposedly started to bring Fi’s scrambled brain-cells back into some semblance of order. No small feat considering the man had apparently been declared brain dead. 

“He’s not as bad as he once was as far as bad jokes go.”

“I think you’re just so used to them you don’t notice the _osik_ that falls out of his mouth every time he opens it.” Sev declared blandly and that earned him a snort from Fixer. 

“He has you there, _vod_ ” Fixer pointed out with a snicker

“No one asked you, Fixer.” Scorch snapped and even with the helmet in place, Sev had the distinct feeling he was pouting underneath his bucket. “Look, Sev, kark Vau, kark the Omegas and the rest of Skirata’s pups, we’re not leaving here without you. I waited almost ten years to find you, I will wait however long it takes for you to get your _osik_ together and come home.”

Sev was surprised by the vehemence in Scorch’s voice and by his words. The idea his former pod had been searching for him all these years was an uncomfortable one. He didn’t know if it was because he in his heart of hearts didn’t think their bond had ever been that powerful or if he just simply wasn’t worthy of that level of concern but hearing Scorch say that struck him like a vibroblade to the chest. 

“It might be a while.” He said, his voice going rough with emotions he didn’t quite know how to process. 

“I don’t care. None of us care how long it’ll take. You are our brother and we’re sticking with you from here on out.”

“As much as I hate to agree with Scorch on principle alone but he’s right. We’re not leaving you again.” Boss said firmly and Fixer nodded his approval grimly. 

“What Boss said, you’re stuck with us, _vod_.” 

“ _Haar'chak!_ I forgot what stubborn _chakaare_ you three are.” Sev cursed and threw up his hands in surrender. 

“I guess we’ll just have to keep reminding you, we have all the time in the world to do so now, _ner vod_.” Scorch, the _shabuir_ that he was, didn’t even bother to try and mask his smugness when he said that. “Now, what kind of grub do you have around here?”

Sev glowered at his brother to no avail and then checked this chrono with the sinking realization he wasn’t going to make it back to that strategy meeting anytime soon. He heaved a sigh and reached for his com-link. “Vane? Can you clear my schedule for the afternoon and make my apologies to the general? I don’t think I’m going to make it back to the meeting any time soon.”

“Already taken care of, boss.” Vane replied back promptly with a rare sort of warmth in her voice and Sev was reminded for what felt like the countless time how blessed he was to have such a competent second in command. “I’m covering you at the meeting, you just enjoy your time with your brothers.” 

“How did you…”

“Their cute pilot read me in on the situation. Gotta go.” And with that, she signed off and Sev found himself faced with his trio of brothers who were looking at him expectantly. 

“Alright, let’s go get some grub and I’ll show you around a little bit.” He said as he climbed to his feet. “Just try not to embarrass me too much, huh?”

“We would never.” 

“You absolutely would which is why I’m asking you ahead of time to not.” 

“You’re no fun.” Scorch grumbled as he fell into step with Sev as they headed for the door with the rest of Delta on their heels.

**Author's Note:**

> Additional Notes: Mars is actually my favorite track from the entire EP and I HIGHLY recommend you go check it out on Youtube if you can find it. It's just....a perfect song for the clones in general.  
>  **Mando’a**  
>  _Aruetiise_ \- Outsiders, foreigners and traitors, in this case outsiders  
>  _Beroya_ \- Bounty Hunter  
>  _Beskar'gam_ \- Armor  
>  _Chakaar/Chakaare_ \- Corpse robber, thief, general term of abuse and it’s plural. It’s a general insult  
>  _Cuy'val Dar_ \- The 75 Mandalorian and 25 other assorted other trainers Jango Fett gathered to train the Clone Troopers. It literally means “Those who no longer exist” because they had to spend a decade without any outside contact on Kamino training the clone troopers. Notable members include Kal Skirata who trained Omega and the Nuls and Walon Vau who was Delta Squad’s training sergeant.  
>  _Dar’manda_ \- One who is no longer Mandalorian or who has lost their Mandalorian heritage. They are considered soulless and it is generally a horrible concept to a traditionalist Mandalorian.  
>  _Haar'chak_ \- Damn it, a general phrase of annoyance and exasperation  
>  _Jetii_ \- Jedi  
>  _Kaminii_ \- Kaminoan  
>  _Manda_ \- Mandalorian concept of the collection of souls and those who have passed on which is overreaching and watches over the living.  
>  _Mando’ade_ \- Mandalorians  
>  _Mando’a_ \- The spoken language of the Mandalorians  
>  _Ner (vod)_ \- My, in this case he is saying my brother  
>  _Osik_ \- Dung, shit.  
>  _Shabla_ \- Screwed up, it’s impolite  
>  _Shabuir/Shabuire_ \- A rude insult, think jerk or an asshole and it’s plural  
>  _Udesii_ \- Calm down, or take it easy.  
>  _Vod/vode_ \- Brother/Brothers


End file.
